Explore, Innovate & Communicate: Nov 29, 2008

Prospects of Participative Journalism in India Prospects of Participative Journalism in India

Recent terrorist attack in Mumbai once again reinforced our belief in wider participation of society in information gathering, processing and disseminating to counter confusion, rumors and negative mass campaign. This was realized even at the time of Tsunami surge in 2004, London Tube bombings in 2005, Katrina devastation in 2007. The use of same electronic technology used by media houses by individuals has created tremendous impact on our capacity to reach out to the event like never before.

Journalism's first obligation is to the truth Democracy depends on citizens having reliable, accurate facts put in a meaningful context. Journalism’s first loyalty is to citizens. Its essence is a discipline of verification. Its practitioners are expected to maintain an independence from those they cover. It is desirable that practitioners of this craft must serve as an independent monitor of power. Media; both print and electronic provide a forum for public criticism and compromise. They interact with official representatives or unofficial sources by striving to reach the deadline to make the significant, interesting and relevant information available. Converging media asks the news to be more and more comprehensive and proportional. Therefore, its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience.

Some terms appear self-reflective: “personal publishing”, “self-publishing”, “do-it-yourself journalism”, “participatory journalism”, “citizen journalism”, “deliberative journalism”, “alternative media/publishing”, “collaborative publishing”, “open publishing”, “social media”, and “community publishing”. These are being uttered in public spaces like never before. There are other practices also which focus on the problems of citizens and try to solve those problems by actively participating citizens in various joint forums along with some stake holder NGOs, voluntary organization etc.

The increasing use of RTI by local vernacular language and mainstream English newspapers to expose the corruption and delays in the completion of the public interest schemes, programs is testimony to the increasing efforts of collaborations between formal media organizations and civil society. One of the aims of journalism is to enable citizens to rule themselves. The interactive platform provided by participative journalism empowers common citizen so as to accelerate the investigative spirit of the development oriented information gathering process.

Commonly we know these are the tools through which citizen journalism is practiced world over. Handbooks, Blog hosting services, Blogging tools, Blog search engines, Content management systems, Photos, Audio, Video, Mapping, Collaborative research, News feeds, Political data, Website widgets, Place blogging, Wiki, Traditional journalism, Other Sources, Watch Resources, External links.

“Citizen Journalism” is a popular label used to describe a form of media that involves moderated reader participation. It generally starts off as a Web-based approach, but one of the long-term strategies is to develop a “best of” print edition that ultimately will serve as the medium’s revenue source. The Northwest Voice, which is the citizen journalism arm of ‘The Bakersfield Californian’, used material from the Web edition to revive its shopper edition. The paper’s own institutional research showed that readership of its regular shopper edition was low, and this was not pleasing to advertisers. Mary Lou Fulton, drawing upon an idea pioneered in South Korea, guided the start of a community Web site that was run solely on story and photo submissions from the community. As content increased, the material eventually replaced the stale material that often stocked the shopper editions. Readership increased for several reasons. There was a “refrigerator door” effect, meaning that citizens were reading the print version of The Northwest Voice more closely because it included news important to them or about them that was akin to putting a child’s hand-drawn picture on the refrigerator as a source of pride and enjoyment.

But beyond the popular definition and the benefits in rebuilding sagging publications, what is citizen journalism? In point of fact, citizen journalism reverses the sender-receiver process of traditional journalism. Whereas newspaper, television and Web media use the journalist as a “gatekeeper” in the process of selecting and presenting news, in the citizen journalism format the journalist is a “shepherd” in the process. What this means is that the journalist’s role is to seek out community voices and encourage submissions; their only editing role is in making sure that copy is readable and does not open the publication to legal problems such as libel or defamation, and then they make selections as to what goes on the main pages of the Web site. Consider what Fulton told Online Journalism Review:

“We are the traditional journalism model turned upside down. Instead of

being the gatekeeper, telling people that what's important to them 'isn't

news,' we're just opening up the gates and letting people come on in. We

are a better community newspaper for having thousands of readers who

serve as the eyes and ears for the Voice, rather than having everything

filtered through the views of a small group of reporters and editors.”

In its beginnings it was referred to as “participatory journalism” or “open source journalism,” but it also has been referred to as “grassroots journalism” and “user-generated content”. For the purposes of this study, I shall use the term “citizen journalism” due to its overwhelming acceptance in industry circles and trade publications, but it is more important here to present a clear conceptual definition if for no other reason than the term “citizen” has proven to be problematic for some when assessing this new type of medium. Little scholarly research has been published on this burgeoning medium due to the fact that it is relatively new, and thus one of the goals of this work will be a clearer definition of what citizen journalism is in terms of both past theoretical and conceptual work.

There has been a great deal of buzz recently about the potential for Weblogs to revolutionize journalism, to make it more democratic, and to help demystify the craft by exposing the wizard behind the curtain of the media establishment. These claims, however, are only partially correct and are derived more from speculation based on the potential of the medium rather than from actual results. Printed words on paper, as a broadsheet, tabloid, magazine, newsletter, or pamphlet, remain a vital component of our robust press. While it is undeniable that new communication technologies have had profound and often disruptive effects upon entrenched journalistic practices, they have primarily enhanced the speed, accuracy, and geographic scope of reporting, or they have augmented the dissemination and reception of news and opinion.

It is reasonable to predict that Weblogs will follow the pattern of prior communication technologies and initially disrupt entrenched journalistic practices yet, over time, become integrated components of the mainstream media landscape. The broad claim that Weblogs will "democratize" journalism stems in large part from the notion that the media is not democratic or, at least, not democratic enough. This criticism applies not only to countries that officially control or suppress their media but also to nations with an ostensibly "free" press.

The Internet, as a many-to-many media model, allows for any article, link, and commentary to be published on a Weblog to an infinite public of interconnected users who may examine the text in question and instantly respond with collaborative evidence and links or, conversely, refute the claims made therein by posting conflicting data and criticism. The temporality of the existing "Letter to the Editor" mechanism for public response to media texts is superseded by the creation of a real-time virtual feedback loop, and the nondiscriminatory nature of most (there are private and friends-only sites) Weblogs allows respondents to forgo the intermediary step of editorial-staff review before publication of criticism. The reflexivity of Weblogs also opens the respondent to the feedback and criticism of other users, allowing every claim to be examined and vetted, leading in turn to increased openness and transparency of dialogue.

This research work will try to envisage Participative Journalism in all of it's possible forms in India. As Internet penetration is gradually increasing in Indian cities but not to the optimum level where Citizen Journalism can be practiced more vigorously, the other interactive media can be studied in order to investigate the success of interactive, collaborative, fearless forms of voluntary communication yielding to the some contribution in the solving of the any sort of problems encountered by citizens and then by communities and by and large any specific cause, service, institution etc.

Despite its bright prospects there are some questions identified by some experts about the possible contribution of the participative journalism. The journalist of the future needs to be competent in moderating and facilitating healthy debate without losing the descent judgment. Certainly, bringing these informal Participative forms into formal conscience will meet with dramatic challenges to how journalism has been traditionally practiced. (www.OhMyNews.com)

How should “personal journalism” with its informal writing style be added to the established body of journalism knowledge, especially elaborate and well-crafted news writing? How should the “personal voice” in journalists’ weblogs be governed by their long-held ethics of objectivity or impartiality? (Pradyumna Maheshwari Vs The Times of India Case) Could blogging journalists both “think and write” at the same time? How should they be different from ordinary citizens who blog? In this scenario what are recent initiatives on the Indian scene which promise the future of Citizen Journalism in India to be assuring.

Should the Civic engagement issues be incorporated in the Participative Journalism? Yes, we should not make a distinction between the citizens making news themselves by digital media and the citizens actively engaging with the platform of media so as to solve the issues in front of them. Despite the widely recognized fact that marketing war and new advertising models are emerging by having more active participation of readers, audiences, it should be critically investigated that upto what degree the quality of the news making, news delivery improvement is achieved. This is not only from the perspectives of content creation, content editing and content transmission but also to legitimize the representative concerns of the community consciously sidestepping from official agenda of the profit making corporate management.

Participative journalism demands putting the public interest ahead of he maximization of profit. It goes beyond only gathering of facts. The act of a citizen, or group of citizens, playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information. The intent of this participation is to provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires. The initiatives by ‘CNNIBN’ has given citizen journalism new voice. ‘Prabhat Khabar’ from Jharkhand has running ‘Readers Court’ in recent months. ‘The Indian Express’ has been very vocal about use of RTI. The Hindu has given readers chance to participate to improve the quality of the newspaper by having new column ‘The Reader`s Editor’. Marathi daily ‘Sakal’ publishes a weekly supplement totally devoted to the spontaneous articles by it`s readers.

Public journalism departs from traditional practices by advocating reporting public listening in news gathering, by producing purposeful news, and by encouraging public debate. These methods are mirror images of traditional journalistic practices are seen as contributing widespread dissatisfaction the media: an over reliance elite or expert sources for news, an emphasis on conflict between opposite sides and short time horizon that leaves some issues under-covered and other covered without any serious follow up.

Public journalism doesn't only aim to treat readers as citizens,it assumes that readers want to be citizens. By and large they are sufficiently serious about making their cities,states,and country work better that they would hammer out a smart agenda, ask experts and candidates relevant questions and strive for a practicable solutions. Public journalism empower citizens to have the time,money,access,and professional expertise of journalists.

Some critics worry that promoting public deliberation through community meetings with trained moderators is costly in terms of financial resources as well as time and takes a toll on the basic functions of news reporting i.e. reporters tasks of describing events and discerning their causes. Others are concerned about the loss of objective authority, authority that comes from the widespread belief that one is telling truth rather than justifying one's position. No other institution does what journalism does, namely "inform, monitor, critique" public affairs.

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